A Secret Life: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland by Charles Lachman

Author:Charles Lachman [Lachman, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Presidents & Heads of State, Nonfiction, Retail, Grover Cleveland
ISBN: 9781620870969
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2013-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

Frederick read the statement, not surprised to find it a fraught with lies and falsehoods, but he knew it was his duty to bring it to his mother’s attention. An enormous sum of money was at stake, and she would have to decide what to do. Frederick returned to New Rochelle with the statement in hand.

William Hudson wasn’t far behind young Halpin. Now that the Cleveland camp had established a direct line of communication with Maria, nothing could keep him away from New Rochelle. On August 7, when Hudson got off the train at the New Rochelle junction, former State Assemblyman Catlin was waiting for him. They had lunch at the country club. For security purposes, Catlin introduced Hudson as his friend “Louis Delafield.” (Hudson’s identity only later came to be exposed because he made the blunder of traveling with a free train pass, issued in his real name by the office of the New York State Railroad Commission.)

After lunch, Hudson and Catlin climbed aboard a one-horse carriage and drove into New Rochelle where they were dropped off at Charles Roosevelt’s law offices. There they waited for darkness to settle on the village. Then the three of them—Hudson, Catlin, and Roosevelt—went to the home of James Seacord.

Roosevelt knocked on the door. Having developed a trusting relationship with Maria, she let him into the house. Hudson and Catlin remained outside under a street lamp, checking a railroad timetable for the next available train out of New Rochelle. A few minutes later, Maria Halpin emerged from the house in a fetching outfit, wearing a heavy veil and carrying a satchel. She got into the carriage and was driven to the New Rochelle station where she caught the 8:07 p.m. to Manhattan. A New Rochelle police officer named Kane made sure she boarded without being “molested” (in other words, no reporters or Republicans were present). Hudson accompanied her on the train, and when they pulled into Grand Central Depot in New York City, a coach was waiting for them. It was last seen rattling down 42nd Street, heading for the West Side, destination unknown.

When James Seacord got home, he found Maria gone. She had left him a note, which he found on a table under the lamp. It was addressed to Uncle Albert—Albert being his middle name.

Don’t worry, I am going away.

It was signed, Rittie.

Word had gotten out that Maria Halpin was living in New Rochelle, and James Seacord found himself in the middle of a 19th-century media frenzy. After Seacord had told all the reporters who’d come knocking that Maria Halpin had “gone away for a few days on a visit,” speculation swept the country that she had been kidnapped. Even reputable newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune expressed concern for Maria’s physical safety, reporting the bogus rumor that once again she had been thrown into a lunatic asylum against her will.

With Maria under wraps, Grover Cleveland’s people were free to tarnish the woman as a prostitute and drunk. Democratic publications gleefully slammed Maria to the brink of malicious libel.

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